Scotty McCreery And Lauren Alaina Land Solid Chart Debuts

Season 10 American Idol winner Scotty McCreery and runner-up Lauren Alaina may be dodging questions about their “are they or aren’t they” relationship status, but one thing they can’t hide from is the success of their debut singles. McCreery’s winner’s song “I love You This Big” debuts at #11 on the new Hot 100 chart published today, while Alaina’s cover of Kristy Lee Cook’s “Like My Mother Does” enters at #20. Billboard reports that “I Love You This Big” sold 171,000 downloads last week, which is nearly double the amount Season 9 winner Lee DeWyze’s “Beautiful Day” sold (95,000) this time last year. Scotty’s single also goes in at #32 on the Country Songs chart — a record high for a new artist’s debut offering on that particular tally.

Over on the Top 200 album chart, Scotty’s digital Idol hits album debuts at #12 after first-week sales of 23,000. (Billboard points out that DeWyze’s similar best-of moved 2,000 digital copies last year.)

As for Lauren, “Like My Mother Does” sold 121,000 downloads, and debuts on the Country Songs roundup at #49.

You have to actually go back to “Do I Make You Proud,” by Idol Season 5’s Taylor Hicks, to find the last winner’s song that charted in the Top 10 of the Hot 100. (It debuted at #1 in June 2006 on the strength of 228,000 copies — both digital and physical — sold.)

Here are Scotty and Lauren performing their singles during their respective appearances this week on Live! With Regis And Kelly:

Scotty McCreery — “I Love You This Big”Lauren Alaina — “Like My Mother Does”